Need Help With My Beer Keg Speakers

[THOR]

I have a buddy who has a bar in his basement. As a gift to him I want to take the drivers and xover out of an old, cheap but decent sounding pair of 3 way speakers whose cabinets are close to the same size and put them into beer kegs, making the kegs into speakers. I have figured out what to do to insulate and deaden the inside of the kegs but.........

What is giving me fits is trying to figure out how to mount the flat drivers onto a round surface. Without ruining the beer keg look. I want them to sit on the floor in their natural upright position and I want them to remain looking like beer kegs as much as possible.

The drivers are a 10" woofer, 4" mid and a 3" tweet.

Any ideas or sugggestions???????

 

[Rob]

Thor,

Well first off you will need help emptying two kegs. Just let me know where and when.

Rob

 

[THOR]

LOL! I already have one empty one to "experiment" on you are more than welcome to come up and help me empty the next one

 

[Robh3606]

Cut a window??

Hello Thor

You could cut a window in the keg to mount a flat baffle out of wood. Know any welders?? You shoild be able to still have the basic shape. Great idea he is gonna love them!!

 

[ProAc_Fan]

This topic was previously discussed at AU. Who was it that wanted to do just this very thing?


Mike

 

[THOR]

That was me But I figured I would post it here too since we got some new folks. The project is on hold until I find a full time job tho

 

[THOR]

That was me But I figured I would post it here too since we got some new folks. The project is on hold until I find a full time job tho

 

[THOR]

That was me But I figured I would post it here too since we got some new folks. The project is on hold until I find a full time job tho

 

[THOR]

That was me But I figured I would post it here too since we got some new folks. The project is on hold until I find a full time job tho

 

[THOR]

Yah that was me, since we got new peeps here I thought i would post it again, even tho the project is on hold until I get a full time job

 

[Thatch_Ear]

Deja vue all over again!

 

[THOR]

Thatch I thought you would at least tell me to use solid silver wiring in my crossover or to fill the bottom of the keg with bleached sand or lead shot

 

[Thatch_Ear]

I think you should get those never stop pouring into a mug beer taps at Spencers for the tops.
Thatch

 

[gonefishin]

Thor...have you thought of any way to mount the drivers yet?

What size drivers are they?

 

[Thatch_Ear]

I suggested to Thor that he take the kegs to an auto body shop to have the hole for a baffle cut out with the air shears and check out a truck mechanics shop for the perferated mesh that covers the huge air filters to cover the baffles and drivers after construction. Any thoughts or ideas on that? I am of the opinion that the drivers need to be mounted on a baffle made of MDF to keep direct contact of the drivers baskets from contact with the metal of the beer keg. And though I believe he wants to do a 3 way with a 10" woof I recommend because of the curve and the need to cover the drivers that a 10"er could be impratical.
Thor, a pic of a keg would be a big help. I know there are a number of shapes.
Thatch

 

[Rob]

Perhaps a good idea given the keg shape would be to install the woofer in the bottom down-firing and elevate the keg on 3 pointed standoffs. The mid and high could be on the front side. This would look like the layout of those marble top Empire speakers from the 60's.

Rob

 

[THOR]

Rob, would the sound be as good as with the typical 3 way configuration??

 

[Rob]

Thor,

I am afraid that you are compromising the speaker design by making it a novelty item. It has to look like a keg first and sound like a speaker second. I think the aluminum keg will have nasty resonances, one especially in the several hundred Hz range, and that will be a real problem unless you damp it internally with a conformal coating of something like lead shot mixed with short strand aurobody filler and thinned with polyester resin, or some other materials, perhaps even cement if you can get it to stick to the aluminum, and then line the inner walls with absorber too. As far as a bottom firing woofer, no problem there really if the crossover point is low enough that directivity isn't an issue. I've never experimented with such ideas yet, so all I can do is guess.
I'm sure if beer kegs made really good sounding speakers they would be all over the place by now eh?

Rob

 

[THOR]

Well damping the keg will be the easiest part, I am gonna spray the inside with about 3" of that sticky ass expanding foam stuff then while it is still tacky press 6" of polyfill insulation into it, that should dampen it enough I think, what do you think?

 

[Rob]

Originally posted by THOR
Well damping the keg will be the easiest part, I am gonna spray the inside with about 3" of that sticky ass expanding foam stuff then while it is still tacky press 6" of polyfill insulation into it, that should dampen it enough I think, what do you think?

Thor,

I think that will reduce the internal volume of the keg so much that you will lose the ability to make bass.

Why not give your friend real speakers, paint 'em white and include a 35mm slide projector with a picture of a beer keg that he can project onto the speakers.

Rob